Carol Armstrong took her first art class in middle school. In that class she completed an acrylic painting and took it home to show her mother. Her mother loved it and thought it was so good that she entered it in the county fair. To their surprise she won first place. Carol’s mother encouraged her to take more art classes, but Carol being a teenager did the opposite of what her mother wanted. In fact, she did not take another art class until about 40 years later. At that time she began by taking a few classes and exploring water color and oils but did not get serious about it until a couple of years ago when she discovered acrylics again by taking a class by North Carolina acrylics painter, Catherine Martin. She now paints in acrylics most of the time and wishes she would have listened to her mother sooner. She also has taken classes from the nationally known acrylics painter, John Poon.

As an acrylic painter Carol seeks to intensify ordinary objects by painting with bold colors and by giving the impression of what the viewer sees rather than a realistic copy. Her goal is to get the viewer to look at things differently and to appreciate objects through color and unique accents. She wants the viewer to see ordinary objects, people, interior and landscape scenes in a new way so that they become not ordinary but extraordinary.

Carol lives in Apex, NC with her husband, Bruce, but also spends part of her time at their vacation home near Asheville in Black Mountain, NC.